How SC’s nuclear project collapsed: A timeline

See the history of how SCANA and SCE&G's V.C. Summer nuclear project failed and what lawmakers are doing now to prevent it from happening again.

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See the history of how SCANA and SCE&G's V.C. Summer nuclear project failed and what lawmakers are doing now to prevent it from happening again.

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COLUMBIA

Virginia-based Dominion Energy again has sweetened its offer for SCANA Corp. in an effort to close on its proposed purchase of the troubled, Cayce-based company.

The new plan, filed with state regulators on Tuesday, features a bigger rate cut for customers of SCE&G, SCANA’s electric subsidiary, than Dominion’s two previous offers.

The proposed 15-percent rate slash also is a hair larger than the temporary cut S.C. lawmakers imposed this year to relieve SCE&G’s customers from continuing to pay high power bills for the utility’s failed nuclear construction project. Dominion and SCE&G previously had said the Legislature’s rate cut was unconstitutional.

SCE&G raised its electric rates nine times over the past decade — to the tune of $27 a month for the average residential customer — to help finance the failed V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion project. That project was abandoned in July 2017 after years of cost overruns and construction delays.

Dominion’s latest offer would cost that same customer about $1,600 over the same span. Previous Dominion offers would have cost customers between $1,700 and $3,000.

“The Office of Regulatory Staff has asked for more information about Dominion’s new proposal,” agency spokesman Ron Aiken said.

Dominion’s new offer is the latest in a series of proposed concessions to S.C. lawmakers and state regulators who can effectively veto the company’s buyout of SCANA.

In January, Dominion announced it had agreed to purchase SCANA and offer SCE&G’s electric customers a $10-a-month rate cut and nuclear refunds worth $1,000 per customer. Dominion officials insisted that was its best and final offer for SCANA.

That deal received support from the powerful speaker of the S.C. House, but it did not win over consumer groups, environmentalists and the Office of Regulatory Staff — groups that are pushing to slash SCE&G’s rates even further.

That offer was improved on Tuesday with feedback from stakeholders in the SCE&G rate case, Dominion attorney Joe Reid told the Public Service Commission.